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Monday, August 29, 2016

78 years ago, a journalist studied 500 rich men and boiled down their success into 13 steps

78 years ago, a
journalist studied 500 rich men and boiled down their success into 13 steps

Napoleon Hill interviewed more than 500 self-made millionaires
over a span of 20 years (although he pre-dated Bill Gates).

At
the peak of Andrew Carnegie's career, he crossed paths with an impressive
journalist named Napoleon Hill, who he trusted to document — and share with the
world — the strategies that turned him into one of the wealthiest and most
successful businessmen of all time.

"It
was Mr Carnegie's idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous
fortune, ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to
investigate how men make money," Hill wrote in the preface of "Think
and Grow Rich," the result of his collaboration with Carnegie.

In
addition to analysing Carnegie, who became the richest man in the worldafter starting with little more than a
penny upon arriving in the US from Scotland, Hill studied more than 500
self-made millionaires over a span of 20 years.

His
interviews and research culminated in the 1937 bestseller, "Think and Grow
Rich," which shares what he calls the "money-making secret" in
13 principles.

There
is no mention of "money," "wealth," "finances,"
or "stocks" within Hill's text; he takes a different approach,
focusing on breaking down the psychological barriers that prevent many of us
from attaining our own fortunes.

This
approach is still relevant today, 78 years later. As personal finance expert
Farnoosh Torabi said onepisode
one of her podcast, "Mastering your money has more to do with psychology
and mind set than anything else."

Here
are Hill's 13 steps, in his words and ours:

1. Desire:
You have to want it.

All
of the super wealthy started with a certain amount of dreaming, hoping,
planning, and desiring before they became rich. They imagined riches before
they saw them in their bank accounts, Hill explains:

Wishingwill not
bring riches. Butdesiringriches with a state of mind
that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire
riches, and backing those plans with persistence whichdoes
not recognize failure, will bring riches.

This
is not so different from the modern-day concept ofvisualizing a savings goalwith a specific price tag.

2. Faith:
Believe that you can achieve your goal.

Growing
rich starts with your mindset — with the belief that you can accumulate wealth.
Hill writes:

Riches
begin in the form of thought! The amount is limited only by the person in whose
mind the thought is put into motion. Faith removes limitations!

As
self-made millionaire and authorSteve
Siebold writes, "Being rich isn't a privilege. Being rich is a right. If
you create massive value for others, you have the right to be as rich as you
want."

Building wealth all starts with your mind set.

3.
Auto-suggestion: Use affirmations to reach your goal.

Turning
desire for money or success into reality requires sending your subconscious
mind phrases and mantras that support your goal. You have to repeat out loud
what it is that you want, and how you plan to get it, so you become obsessed
with your purpose, Hill explains:

Your
ability to use the principle of auto-suggestion will depend, very largely, upon
your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a
burning obsession.

For
example, if you aim to save $1 million for retirement by putting away money
every week, you would repeat, "I will set aside money this week to have $1
million in retirement savings," as many times as possible
each day.

4.
Specialized knowledge: Gain experiences and continue learning.

Knowledge
is potential power. An education only becomes powerful and leads to great
wealth when it is organized and applied to life. It also must be continually
sought after. You're never done learning, Hill emphasizes:

Successful
men, in all callings, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to
their major purpose, business, or profession. Those who are not successful
usually make the mistake of believing that the knowledge-acquiring period ends
when one finishes school.

Many
modern-day successful and wealthy people are voracious readers; they never stop
learning and challenging their minds.

5.
Imagination: Come up with ideas and visualize your success.

Ideas
are the beginning points of all fortunes. Ideas are products of the imagination
...

Man's
only limitation, within reason, lies in his development and use of his
imagination.

Don't
be afraid to come up with, and develop,ideas."Whoever you are, wherever you
may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the
future, every time you see the words 'Coca-Cola,' that its vast empire of
wealth and influence grew out of a single idea," Hill writes.

Consider
Sara Blakely, whose small, disruptive idea —making
an incision in a pair of pantyhose—
amounted to her booming, billion-dollar business, Spanx, and rocketed her into
the limelight.

6. Organized
planning: Take action.

Once
you've visualized your success, you need to take action and go after exactly
what you want. You must act with persistence and enthusiasm. Hill explains:

Opportunity
has spread its wares before you. Step up to the front, select what you want,
create your plan, put the plan into action, and follow through with persistence
...

Most
of us are good "starters" but poor "finishers" of
everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the first signs
of defeat. There is no substitute for persistence.

For
instance, if you're looking to build wealth, start with forming afinancial plan, and determine exactly where you
want your money to go.

Self-made millionaire Tony Robbins delves into the psychology of
wealth in his book, "Money: Master the Game."

7. Decision:
Defeat procrastination with decisiveness.

A
key trait Hill recognized in all of the individuals he studied who acquired
great wealth wasdecisiveness. Those who settle on decisions quickly know
what they want, and they tend to get what they want. He writes:

People
who fail to accumulate money,without exception, have the
habit of reaching decisions, if at all, veryslowly, andof
changing these decisions quickly and often.

Decisiveness
is not just a trait of the wealthy, butone
of the most important qualities a leader needs to possess. At the end of the
day, making a bad decision is better than making no decision at all.

8.
Persistence: Do not stop until you get what you want.

Persistence
is crucial when trying to accumulate wealth, yet few people possess the
willpower required to turn their desire for money into actual money. Hill
writes:

Riches
do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by
definite desires, through constant persistence.

The
mostsuccessful people tend to
have dealt with, and overcome, failure. "I've learned that it doesn't
matter how many times you failed," Mark Cuban toldSmart Business. "You only have to be right
once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I
learned from them all."

Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban.

9. Power of
the Master Mind: Surround yourself with the best.

The
wealthiest people create a "Master Mind," meaning they surround
themselves with talented friends and colleagues who share their vision. The
alignment of several smart and creative minds is exponentially more powerful
than just one, Hill explains:

No
individual may have great power without availing himself of the "Master
Mind" ...

A
group of brains coordinated (or connected) in a spirit of harmony will provide
more thought-energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries
will provide more energy than a single battery.

This
may explain whyrich people tend
to make friends with other rich people. "Exposure to people who are more
successful than you are has the potential to expand your thinking and catapult
your income,"writesself-made millionaire Steve Siebold.
"We become like the people we associate with, and that's why winners are
attracted to winners."

10. The
Mystery of Sex Transmutation: Choose a compatible partner.

Sexual
energy is an incredibly powerful human energy — it creates physical life and
develops emotional life, and when it is harnessed and redirected, it can
enhance our creativity, passion, enthusiasm, and persistence, all which are
crucial in accumulating wealth, Hill says:

Sex
desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men
develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence, and creative
ability unknown to them at other times.

Love,
romance, and sex are all emotions capable of driving men to heights of super
achievement. When combined, these three emotions may lift one to an altitude of
genius.

While
this step may feel like a bit of a stretch,having
a supportive partner is important to career success. Research also shows thathaving a conscientious spouse can
boost your salary by $4,000 a year.

If
you truly want to be rich, you have to plant that desire, and then your plan,
into your subconscious mind. Hill writes:

The
subconscious mind will not remain idle! If you fail to plant desires in your
subconscious mind, it will feed upon the thoughts which reach it as the result
of your neglect.

Positive
and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other
must dominate. It is your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions
constitute the dominating influence of your mind.

If
you want to be successful and grow rich, it is critical that the positive
emotions dominate any negative ones that arise, Hill says. He was on to
something: Today,research showsthat
positive, happier people are more likely to perform better at their jobs and are
less likely to be unemployed.

12. The
Brain: Associate with other smart people and learn from them.

Our
brain is a "transmitter and receiver of thought vibrations" — it
absorbs thoughts from other individuals surrounding us, making it even more
important to associate with intelligent, creative, and positive individuals.
Hill writes:

Every
human brain is capable of picking up vibrations of thought which are being
released by other brains...

The
Creative Imagination is the "receiving set" of the brain, which
receives thoughts released by the brains of others.

This
principle is simply application of the Master Mind principle. It takes it one
step further — rather than just surrounding yourself with people who are
smarter and better, use the members of your group to find solutions to problems
or brainstorm ideas. Hill calls this "blending of several minds into
one," and suggests sitting down with a small group of people and diving
deep into the problem at hand.

13. The
Sixth Sense: Trust your gut.

The
final principle — the "sixth sense" — occurs only after you've
mastered the other 12 principles. You'll experience a sort of mind-shift, Hill
says: "Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending
dangers in time to avoid them, and notified of opportunities in time to embrace
them."

While
this principle isn't the most straightforward — Hill admits it is generally not
attained until age 40 — his basic claim is that your intuition will change.
You'll have achieved a level of wisdom that will allow you to start making
smart financial and life decisions naturally.

Although
it takes a while to master the final step, you can still get a lot out of the
other 12 principles, Hill says:

No
matter who you are, or what may have been your purpose in reading this book,
you can profit by it without understanding the principle described in this
chapter. This is especially true if your major purpose is that of accumulation
of money or other material things.

The
chapter on the sixth sense was included, because the book is designed for the
purpose of presenting a complete philosophy by which individuals may unerringly
guide themselves in attaining whatever they ask of life.